From the first days of the Gulf oil disaster in 2010 when it publicly underestimated the oil gusher’s flow rate by 50 times, BP has always lived in a state of denial. But as the Gulf oil disaster approaches the four-year mark, BP is dramatically escalating its denial campaign, rejecting the science of even the most basic oil impacts on wildlife and attacking the National Wildlife Federation for taking reporters into the disaster zone.

Gulf Still Struggling

There is strong evidence that the ongoing illness of dolphins in a heavily oiled section of Louisiana is related to oil exposure.

Roughly five hundred dead sea turtles have been found every year for the past three years in the area affected by the spill—a dramatic increase over normal rates.

Sperm whales in the Gulf of Mexico have higher levels of DNA-damaging metals than sperm whales elsewhere in the world—metals that were present in oil from BP’s well.

We also took some reporters on a boat tour of the impacted areas in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay, hit hard by the BP oil. As you can see at right, today Cat Island is almost completely stripped of vegetation. For comparison, here’s what Cat Island looked like back in 2010, with thriving mangroves and a bustling rookery for pelicans, roseate spoonbills and other birds. Without the mangrove trees to hold the sand in place, some islands themselves are now beginning to wash away – gone for good.

BP Attacks NWF

BP came out swinging at the National Wildlife Federation for its report on Gulf species allegedly damaged by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and has taken strong issue with an environmental tour last week that the group sponsored in Barataria Bay.

A Tri-Parish Times reporter and a photographer were among the media representatives who traveled on the tour, which included stops at a pelican rookery and damaged barrier islands denuded of mangroves.

“The only thing this marsh tour illustrates is how little interest some advocacy groups have in telling the truth about the state of the Gulf’s recovery,” said Jason Ryan, a BP spokesman.

The section I’ve bolded above tells you just how deep BP’s denial goes – any damage at all is now “allegedly.” BP is now trying to turn wildlife impacts into a controversial topic that must be reported as a he said/she said issue, using its muscle and media connections to try to silence any organization or scientist who says otherwise.

Fishermen at the Myrtle Grove Marina south of New Orleans say despite a massive clean-up effort, Barataria Bay is still hurting.

“There are some areas that we may stay away from just because we know about tar balls popping up and this and that and we really don’t even visit those areas any longer,” said charter boat captain Chad Breland. “Sometimes you have to find new locations to fish. You may have to burn a lot more fuel. You may have to fish different places.”

BP is following the Exxon Valdez playbook – do what you can to look like you care, but always remember the top priority is protecting corporate profits by minimizing legal liability.

But here’s what the science tells us about dolphins in a heavily-oiled section of the Louisiana coast, according to a NOAA study just released in December 2013:

Bottlenose dolphins in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay have lung damage and adrenal hormone abnormalities not previously seen in other dolphin populations, according to a new peer-reviewed study published Dec. 18, 2013 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. […]

For Dr. Lori Schwacke, the study’s lead author and veteran of a number of similar dolphin health studies across the southeast, the findings are troubling: “I’ve never seen such a high prevalence of very sick animals — and with unusual conditions such as the adrenal hormone abnormalities.”

The [Natural Resource Damage Assessment] researchers found that moderate to severe lung disease was five times more likely in the Barataria Bay dolphins, with symptoms including lung masses and consolidation. The researchers also found that 25 percent of the Barataria Bay dolphins were significantly underweight and the population overall had very low levels of adrenal hormones, which are critical for responding to stress.

NOAA has now expanded its study of live dolphins to waters in Mississippi and Alabama as part of its effort to understand why dolphins across the northern Gulf of Mexico—the area affected by the oil—have been dying in high numbers since February 2010.

For the truth about the state of the Gulf, watch this National Wildlife Federation video:

If you listened to BP on April 24, 2010, there was a small problem in the Gulf of Mexico and about 42,000 gallons of oil were leaking every day. Turns out, it was probably more like 2.2 million gallons a day. But four years later, BP wants you to think that Gulf has is healthy and only “isolated” areas are still at risk. We can’t trust BP – but we can ask the government to make BP pay for the damage it’s done.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/04/dead-gulf-dolphins-destroyed-habitat-not-bps-fault-says-bp/feed/294460Artificial Reefs: Restoration Beyond Recreation?http://blog.nwf.org/2013/11/artificial-reefs-restoration-beyond-recreation/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/11/artificial-reefs-restoration-beyond-recreation/#respondTue, 19 Nov 2013 20:15:34 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=88374Over the past few decades the five Gulf States have built artificial reefs both inshore and offshore with the aim of enhancing recreational fishing and diving opportunities. State and local governments on the Gulf Coast have expressed interest in creating additional artificial reefs with some of the money from the federal funds resulting from the BP oil disaster.

Itis important to make sure these projects are funded appropriately and implemented using the best available science.

Artificial Reef Science: Are We There Yet?

A number of environmental and economic considerations should be considered when planning and designing new artificial reef projects. Water quality, wave interaction, bottom composition, reef profile, and materials used for construction are just a few things that can influence the effectiveness of these habitats, or potentially cause harm to adjacent habitats.

The bottom line is that scientists are still working to unravel the functionality of artificial reefs. Some experts believe that artificial reefs can function comparably to natural reef communities. Others argue that artificial reefs merely attract existing fish from the adjacent open water habitat, forming more dense fish aggregations. Only time, and additional research, will tell.

Natural Reefs vs. Artificial Reefs

Artificial reef projects are designed to enhance recreational fishing opportunities. Reef restoration projects are designed to restore the ecological functions provided by reef systems. In cases where materials of similar type and size to historical or natural habitats—such as oyster reefs—are placed in nearshore waters in order to help the recovery of related ecological services, the term “artificial reef” is misleading. Because reef restoration projects can restore or replace “natural resources, habitats, or natural resource services” damaged by the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, they may qualify as an appropriate use of Natural Resource Damage Assessment funding, or even other spill-related resources like the RESTORE Act and the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund.

Loss of Human Use?

Artificial reefs develop communities of encrusting organisms and thus attract fish, but studies have shown that the communities that develop on artificial reefs remain quite different from those on natural reefs. Because artificial reef projects don’t serve to replace or restore the harm to natural resources, they have a more limited source of appropriate spill-related funding.

These types of projects could help to restore or replace the loss of human use stemming from the Deepwater Horizon disaster:

The oil disaster resulted in significant closures of recreational fishing, boating and swimming ground. Scaled appropriately, artificial reefs could help compensate the public for lost access (or “human use”) to the Gulf of Mexico by generating new opportunities for angling, snorkeling, and engaging in other recreational activities.

Artificial reef projects intended to restore or replace existingartificial reefs that were harmed during the oil disaster would be a justifiable use under the Natural Resources Damage Assessment process.

The Gulf of Mexico is an economic powerhouse and a national treasure. Natural and restored reef habitats can help make it whole again in the wake of the disaster. Strategic and appropriate investment of spill-related funding to restore its use, wildlife habitats, water quality and diversity of ecosystems will pay environmental and economic dividends for generations to come.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2013/11/artificial-reefs-restoration-beyond-recreation/feed/088374How Much Oil Is Still In the Gulf?http://blog.nwf.org/2013/10/how-much-oil-is-still-in-the-gulf/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/10/how-much-oil-is-still-in-the-gulf/#commentsThu, 03 Oct 2013 22:22:28 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=86165As the second phase of the civil trial over the Gulf oil disaster continues, we are hearing much discussion over exactly how many barrels of oil were released into the Gulf of Mexico. Legally, this question is critical because it will help determine the amount of money available for restoration. For Gulf wildlife, a related question is equally pressing: how much oil is out there, and what is it doing to the habitats and species of the Gulf?

Burning Oil Slick – Photo Courtesy of US Department of Defense.

Scientists are a long way from being able to answer that question definitively. But several new studies are bringing the big picture of what happened to the oil that remained in the Gulf into focus.

One eyebrow-raising recently-published independent study sampled seafood, sediment, water, fauna and flora collected in 2010. The researchers found that concentrations of petroleum compounds in seafood were up to 3,800 times greater than thresholds considered safe and the authors openly questioned the government’s decision to re-open areas for fishing before the well was capped. Additionally, the study also found high concentrations of oil compounds as far from the well as Galveston and Pensacola.

Dr. Paul W. Sammarco, the lead scientist on the paper from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) in Chauvin, LA, pointed out that, “given the approximately 100-300 million gallons of oil spilled and 1-3 million gallons of Corexit dispersants released, the results from this study are not surprising.”

Dr. Sammarco went on to say that he believes that the “dispersants created a patchy dispersal of oil and dispersant beneath the surface of the water, and that the patches were not readily sampled by government scientists and regulators through ‘point sampling’ which is generally used to sample seawater for nutrients and contaminants.” …

The contrast between these independent scientists’ data and those of the US Dept. of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) while the spill was still active in May 2010, and extending 4 months after the well was capped, warrants a re-examination of the data, testing methodologies, and oil spill monitoring plans, according to the scientists involved.

“Some of the missing oil may have mixed with deep ocean sediments, creating a dirty bathtub effect,” said Dr. Jeff Canton, an oceanographer with Florida State University. “The sediments then fell to the floor at rates 10 times the normal deposition rates. It was, in essence, an underwater blizzard.”

USF researchers have also noted a die-off of the microscopic fauna known as foraminifera that are normally live on the sea floor. Impacts of this magnitude are hypothesized to have lingering effects on other wildlife, particularly on fish.

The diseased fish began turning up a few months after BP was able to shut off the flow of oil in July 2010. The discovery of fish with lesions faded out the following year, said Steve Murawski, a USF fisheries biologist who has overseen a project that examined 7,000 fish caught in the gulf.

Scientists are now looking for more subtle effects in red snapper, such as reductions in the number of large fish and a decline in the total population, Murawski said. They are looking for any genetic mutations, too, he said.

“If they get sick, that’s one thing,” Murawski said. “But if it changed their genes so that they’re less resistant to disease or have lower weights, that’s a big deal. That would be a real game-changer if true.”

If it seems like BP has aggressively shirked responsibility for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster since the day the rig exploded, it’s because the company has been doing just that. Today, BP takes its full-court press back to federal court.

In this phase of the trial, the U.S. Department of Justice and BP will square off on two issues. First, what did the responsible parties do to stop the release of oil, and how prepared were they to deal with the blowout?

Second—and more importantly—how much oil was released from the time the spill began on April 20 until the well was capped 87 days later?

You’ve heard this story before. Four days after the blowout, corporate executives told the Coast Guard that 1000 barrels of oil were escaping each day. But here’s the thing: BP’s own internal emails show that two days prior, a BP employee estimated the flow at anywhere from 62,000 to 146,000 barrels per day.

Even as it tried to stop the gusher, BP continued to downplay the size of the spill. The company pled guilty to a criminal count of lying to Congress on this very topic. Transocean and Halliburton even allege that BP’s misrepresentations harmed efforts to plug the well.

During the spill, BP had a leg-up on the general public: the oil was spewing over a mile below the surface of the ocean, 40 miles off the Louisiana coast. And only major oil companies owned the remotely operated vehicles necessary to see what was happening so far below the surface.

Only after political pressure from Sens. Bill Nelson and Barbara Boxer did the company release its shocking footage of dark crude oil and gaseous methane gushing from the riser pipe and wellhead in one continuous, forceful stream. When experts saw the video, they knew instantly that BP’s claims about the magnitude of the spill were grossly understated.

In court, BP has every incentive to try and get this official estimate reduced. Under the Clean Water Act, the company will have to pay anywhere from $1,100 to $4,300 per barrel spilled. And thanks to a bill known the RESTORE Act, 80% of the Clean Water Act fines will be sent back to the region affected by the disaster.

“Nearly three and a half years since the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion killed 11 men and caused the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history, the Gulf still waits for restoration. BP’s misleading advertising campaigns omit truths and facts: Gulf Coast communities, wildlife and ecosystems are still harmed and need to be restored. Tar mats continue to surface, miles of Louisiana shoreline remain oiled and the full effects of the oil spill may not be known for years to come.

“It is time for BP to accept full responsibility for the Gulf oil disaster. The natural resources of the Gulf, which sustain and bolster regional and national economies, need restoration now. We cannot wait any longer for our ruined wetlands and barrier islands to be restored.

Take Action! Help dolphins in the Gulf by editing and sending a message to the Department of Justice, urging them to hold BP fully accountable for the oil spill.

“This Saturday is the 20th anniversary of National Public Lands Day and it’s a ripe opportunity to visit the great outdoors and volunteer for the numerous projects planned nationwide.”

“It’s also a great time to remember that there’s nothing partisan about clean air and water, intact fish and wildlife habitat and having places to fish, hunt, hike and reconnect to nature. These lands, which are cherished by Americans of all backgrounds, are too often at the center of disputes over who should benefit from their use. Arecent report by the National Wildlife Federation looks at the economic, environmental and social values of our public lands. It also explores attempts by some lawmakers to sell the lands, roll back environmental protections or make drilling, logging and mining the dominant use.”

September 25- Later today the House is expected to release a debt ceiling package that includes a litany of attacks on conservation.

“Polluting special interests know the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline can’t pass a fair national interest review and can’t pass as a stand-alone bill, so they’re trying to take America’s economy hostage to deliver Canadian oil to the international market,” said Adam Kolton, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s National Advocacy Center. “Drill past Keystone and this debt ceiling plan is a polluter wish list of favors too unpopular and politically toxic to pass on their own. Gutting conservation protections would do nothing to cut the deficit while hurting America’s wildlife, clean air and water, and public health.”

September 25- Statement of Myron Hess, Manager of Texas Water Programs/Counsel for the National Wildlife Federation:

“Today, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) voted to issue a permit for the proposed Lake Ralph Hall. Unfortunately, in issuing the permit, TCEQ missed a golden opportunity to advance water conservation in Texas. Many types of new water supply strategies are needed to meet the water needs of a growing Texas population, but, as the State Water Plan recognizes, none are more critical than using available supplies more efficiently.”

September 24- Summer should be a time for fishing, boating and swimming with family on our nation’s lakes. Yet instead of fresh clear waters, many are encountering mats of thick blue-green harmful algal blooms (HABs) – aka toxic algae.

A new, first-of-its-kind national online map by the communications firm Resource Media shows that 21 states across the US have issued health advisories and warnings related to harmful algal blooms at 147 different locations on lakes, rivers and ponds this summer.

September 23- The National Wildlife Federation will honor Dr. Michael Mann with its 2013 National Conservation Achievement Award for Science at a September 25 event in Harrisburg hosted by PennFuture, NWF’s state affiliate.

“No one has put more on the line in the name of climate science than Dr. Michael Mann. He’s repeatedly gone all-in against polluters and their allies, staking his reputation on the integrity of climate science – and he’s won every time,” said Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “Dr. Mann’s tireless work to advance our understanding of climate science, help the public understand global warming and speak out for what must be done to confront it is an invaluable contribution to this and future generations of Americans.”

Dr. Mann serves as director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. He is most well known for publication, with two co-authors, of the 1998 paper “Global-scale temperature patterns and climate forcing over the past six centuries.” This research presented the “hockey stick graph” showing the rapid rise in the Earth’s temperature of the past 100 years, associated with carbon emissions.

Watch NWF’s Conservation Achievement Awards video on the history of the awards and past honorees.

They call it the green slime, a toxic ooze of algae that covered lakes and other water bodies across the United States this summer, closing beaches in Wisconsin and Kentucky, and killing scores of dolphins, manatees, birds and fish in Florida, a report says.

“We need to protect our way of life,” Medicine Bull said in an interview after he blessed the Lummi totem pole on the first stop of its spiritual journey. “I addressed the grandfathers, those who have gone before us, and I told them the reason we were here, and I asked them to hear our prayer and stand beside us.”

A 2012 National Wildlife Federation poll of self-identified hunters and anglers showed that a majority believe protecting public lands should be given priority, even if it means limiting energy production on those lands.

The National Wildlife Federation Action Fund warned that the bill would “prioritize cutting down trees above everything else – including the black bears and other wildlife that depend on forests for their food, shelter and clean water to drink.

The red knot, a shore bird on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, is a good example, says Doug Inkley, the National Wildlife Federation’s senior scientist.”Some migrate as far as 9,300 miles from their Arctic breeding grounds to the southernmost tip of South America where they overwinter,” he said.

The report, released yesterday by Resource Media and the National Wildlife Federation, lists 147 instances this summer in which state or federal officials posted algae warnings. That includes the 10 warnings posted for Lake Erie and several Ohio lakes and reservoirs.

National Wildlife Federation is currently taking applications for organizations and groups wishing to hold a native tree planting this fall as part of its Trees for Wildlife program. Trees for Wildlife is an educational program of the National Wildlife Federation, providing adult leaders with fun, hands-on science-based activities to help young people learn about the importance of trees to communities and wildlife and how to plant and take care of trees for the future.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2013/09/weekly-news-roundup-september-27-2013/feed/085984What is Happening to the Gulf’s Blue Crabs?http://blog.nwf.org/2013/08/what-is-happening-to-the-gulfs-blue-crabs/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/08/what-is-happening-to-the-gulfs-blue-crabs/#commentsThu, 22 Aug 2013 14:30:20 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=84647Blue crabs are one of nature’s survivors. This tough little creature—whose scientific name Callinectes sapidus translates to “savory beautiful swimmer”—is a critical part of the Gulf’s food chain, eaten by a wide variety of species from the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle to the whooping crane to many, many different kinds of fish.

The blue crab’s critical place in the Gulf’s food web means a prolonged drop in its populations could have widespread repercussions.

A juvenile blue crab is held near its nursery habitat. Photo: ChesapeakeBayEO.

Tiny creatures might take in such low amounts of oil that they could survive, [Bob Thomas, a biologist at Loyola University in New Orleans] said. But those at the top of the chain, such as dolphins and tuna, could get fatal “megadoses.”

For blue crabs, 2012 was overall an average year in Louisiana, but the picture was mixed, with some places seeing declines while others saw an increase. This is not unusual. Crab populations fluctuate widely–the species is very responsive to changes in its environment, such as unfavorable weather patterns or lack of fresh water flowing into its favored habitats during droughts.

Does this drop in populations have anything to do with Deepwater Horizon? John Lopez, coastal sustainability program director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, is questioning whether the Gulf oil disaster could be the source of the problem. As stated in the Times Picayune:

“The crabs lay their eggs out in the Gulf of Mexico, and it takes about three years for those crabs to mature, so if you think about it, we’re now three years after the oil spill, and if there was an impact to the eggs — if they were damaged out in the Gulf three years ago — it could be manifested just now because this is the time those eggs would be mature crabs,” Lopez said.

Darryl Felder, a University of Louisiana biology professor, has been studying deep-water shrimp and lobsters as well as crabs caught in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay, which was inundated with oil. He said the deformities originally found on the shrimp and lobsters have eased up, but not on crabs.

“People are bringing in (crabs) that are really messed up,” he said. “The crab catches are really down, and what they’re getting have big lesions on them — lesions and fungal or bacterial infections.”

The problem, he said, is that no one was documenting these species before the disaster, so it’s hard to say whether this is normal or was caused by the oil.

Aside from their ecological importance, blue crabs are one of the most economically important fisheries of the Gulf. Louisiana alone lands approximately 26 percent of the total blue crabs for the nation, a value of more than $135 million at today’s market prices.

So who is getting to the bottom of this? The questions raised by the decline in blue crab numbers and the observed lesions and infections call for serious scientific inquiry.

Whatever the cause of the current decline, we can and should take steps to restore habitat for blue crabs. This “savory beautiful swimmer” that is so important to so many species of wildlife relies on estuaries—places where freshwater from rivers flows into the saltier waters of the Gulf—to feed and reproduce.

But across the Gulf Coast, our estuaries and wetlands are in serious decline. The Gulf loses 20,000 acres of coastal wetlands every single year.

Using the money from BP’s oil spill fines to stop coastal wetlands loss and protect habitats for blue crabs will have a positive impact on the entire food web of the Gulf of Mexico—and the Gulf Coast economy as well.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2013/08/what-is-happening-to-the-gulfs-blue-crabs/feed/1784647The Public Has Spoken: Gulf Ecosystem Restoration Is National Economic Restorationhttp://blog.nwf.org/2013/07/the-public-has-spoken-gulf-ecosystem-restoration-is-national-economic-restoration/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/07/the-public-has-spoken-gulf-ecosystem-restoration-is-national-economic-restoration/#respondFri, 12 Jul 2013 20:12:10 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=82791July 8th marked the end of a public comment period for the Gulf Ecosystem Restoration Council’s Draft Plan. National Wildlife Federation and Environmental Defense Fund’s members submitted an astounding 37, 076 comments to the Gulf Ecosystem Restoration Council, saying that they expect this money to be dedicated solely to environmental restoration. So thank you to everyone for speaking up for people and wildlife in the Gulf! Your voice counts and we appreciate all your efforts! In the words of notable scholar Ryan Lochte, “Jeah!!!”

Because of this robust public support we are one step closer to having a plan that specifies how the money received from the 2010 BP oil disaster will be allocated in the Gulf States for ecosystem restoration projects. This is another huge step toward restoring this fragile ecosystem, and ensuring that generations can enjoy a healthy Gulf for years to come.

Now I know that we’ve been taking about the travesty that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico for three years. But for three long years people and wildlife in the Gulf have been suffering. In fact, more than 800 dolphins have been stranded since the Gulf Oil disaster began — to put that in perspective a normal rate would be fewer than 200.

NWF, along with our partners in the Mississippi River Delta Coalition have been there every step of the way, covering the Deepwater Horizon explosion, helping with the cleanup efforts, bolstering Department of Justice to hold BP fully accountable for their gross negligence, and working with members of congress to ensure that the Gulf States receive the necessary funding to restore the ecosystems decimated by the 2010 oil spill.

Here’s the Story from A to Z

Below is a recap about what has been done to date to rectify the disaster in the Gulf.

July 15, 2010: The Macondo well is capped after releasing 4.9 million barrels, killing wildlife and hampering the livelihoods of people in the Gulf.

(photo credit: Yuki Kokubo)

2011: NWF and our partners in the Mississippi River Delta Coalition worked tirelessly with state, congressional, and federal policy makers to craft legislation that would provide funding to restore the Gulf coast. We brought numerous constituents from all sectors (ranging from local businesses, sportsmen, tourism industry, and environmentalists) to Washington, DC to meet with members of Congress and impress upon them the importance of restoring the gulf ecosystems. We also had our staff on the ground in the Gulf States educating them about the impacts of the BP oil spill.

(photo credit: Mississippi River Delta Coalition)

July 6, 2012: The Resources and Ecosystem Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities and Revived Economies Act (RESTORE Act) signed into law, dedicating 80 percent of all Clean Water Act penalties paid by BP and other responsible parties for the 2010 oil spill.

(photo credit: Mississippi River Delta Coalition)

February 13, 2012: The Mississippi River Delta’s followers submitted 133,501 petitions to the Department of Justice encouraging them to hold BP and all responsible parties fully accountable for their gross negligence during the 2010 oil spill.

(photo credit: Mississippi River Delta Coalition)

February 25, 2013: The civil trial to hold BP accountable for the 2010 oil spill starts in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Mississippi River Delta Coalition and partners held a rally in front of the courthouse to support the Department of Justice holding BP fully accountable for their gross negligence.

May 23, 2013: The Gulf Ecosystem Restoration Council (established in the RESTORE Act) releases its Draft Initial Comprehensive Plan: Restoring the Gulf Coast’s Ecosystem and Economy. The Draft Plan establishes overarching restoration goals for the Gulf Coast region; provides details about how the Council will solicit, evaluate, and fund projects and programs for ecosystem restoration in the Gulf Coast region; outlines the process for the development, review, and approval of State Expenditure Plans; and highlights the Council’s next steps. Once the report was released the public was afforded the opportunity to comment on the plan and to help ensure that the money allocated by the Council will go toward ecosystem restoration projects.

(photo credit: Mississippi River Delta Coalition)

July 8, 2013: The public Comment period closes for the Draft Plan. At the close of this 30 day comment period thousands of comments had been submitted with over 37,000 specifically about directing funds toward environmental restoration in the Gulf.

Next steps: the council will finalize a restoration plan in the coming weeks, the BP trial will be settled, and the money from the BP civil trial will go toward the Gulf States to implement restoration projects.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2013/07/the-public-has-spoken-gulf-ecosystem-restoration-is-national-economic-restoration/feed/082791Speak Up! BP Oil Spill Fines Must be Used to Restore the Gulfhttp://blog.nwf.org/2013/05/speak-up-bp-oil-spill-fines-must-be-used-to-restore-the-gulf/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/05/speak-up-bp-oil-spill-fines-must-be-used-to-restore-the-gulf/#respondFri, 31 May 2013 15:36:40 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=80821Three years after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and sent more than 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the region’s wildlife and wetlands are still suffering.

The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council released a draft plan for restoring the Gulf in the wake of the BP oil disaster. While there is much to like in the recent draft, the Restoration Council is also under enormous outside pressure to approve development projects that in some cases can actually cause further harm.

Speak Up and Submit Comments!

Now is the public’s opportunity to have its voice heard and let the Council know that we want BP’s oil spill fines to be used solely on projects that help restore the Gulf.There is a formal public comment period for the Draft Plan that ends July 8, 2013. Simply click here and submit a comment to the Council.

We appreciate that the Ecosystem Restoration Council’s Draft Initial Plan further elaborates on the requirements of the RESTORE Act that the Council-selected Restoration Allocation (30%) will be dedicated solely to ecosystem restoration projects.The Council should maintain an environmental restoration focus.

The Impact-Based State allocations, 30% of the RESTORE Act dollars, should not fund projects that will do harm to the environment. The Final Plan should require that provides a net environmental gain.

The Draft Plan indicates the Council will seek further public comment on a project list. The Final Plan must ensure that the public is granted the opportunity to comment and participate in all phases of plan and project development. It’s important for stakeholders to provide input on the projects that will inevitably affect people in the Gulf and throughout the nation.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2013/05/speak-up-bp-oil-spill-fines-must-be-used-to-restore-the-gulf/feed/080821Deepwater Horizon: The Disaster That Keeps on Harminghttp://blog.nwf.org/2013/04/deepwater-horizon-the-disaster-that-keeps-on-harming/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/04/deepwater-horizon-the-disaster-that-keeps-on-harming/#commentsThu, 11 Apr 2013 18:08:57 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=78128The devastating (but not wholly unexpected) results of a University of South Florida (USF) study suggest the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster is ongoing in the Gulf of Mexico. Foraminifera — microscopic organisms that are the bread and butter of clam and seaworm diets — suffered a massive die-off in oiled areas.

Remember the plume of dispersed oil that stretched from the wellhead and settled in the deep underwater canyon just south of the wellhead? It turns out the foul feature caused an oily sediment blizzard. Analysis of core samples taken from the canyon where the sediment blizzard came to rest showed the record die-off.

As the oil was flowing, David Hollander at USF was one of the first scientists to find that subsea dispersant application led to the plume of oily water. At the time, I was staffing Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) who sits on the Senate Oceans Subcommittee. Hearing what researchers like Hollander were finding, Sen. Nelson was gravely concerned about the impacts of dispersed oil particles on the Gulf food-web. He filed the Subsea Hydrocarbon Imagery and Planning (SHIP) Act to require the government to track the plume and develop a plan to clean it up. SHIP was never enacted.

Hollander was right to be concerned three years ago. Summarizing the results of the USF study, Hollander says, “Everywhere the plume went, the die-off went.”

Marine Foraminifera by Flickr user Pali Nalu

The die-off of microscopic foraminifera may create a ripple-effect in the food-web. They are a food source for small marine animals, which larger fish like red snapper then like to eat. The chain continues up to apex predators like dolphins. An NWF report released last week found Gulf dolphins are in bad shape: there’s been a record 650 dolphin strandings in the oil spill area over the last three years.

Gulf Killifish by Louisiana Sea Grant College Program, Louisiana State University

Foraminera aren’t the only basic food sources that were harmed either. Killifish, known to most Gulf residents as bull minnows, are prized bait fish. They are tasty morsels for bigger commercially and recreationally valuable fish species.

Gills serve fish the way lungs serve humans: they allow for oxygen to enter the bloodstream and remove carbon dioxide. In essence, they “breathe.” Healthy functional gill tissue has a uniform, parallel, accordion appearance. Louisiana State University researchers compared the gill tissue of killifish in an oiled marsh to those in an oil-free marsh. The results? The gill tissue from killifish in the oiled marsh was a mangled mess.

Reports that microscopic organisms and bull minnows were harmed by the disaster three years ago suggest there are more impacts to come. It took years after the Exxon Valdez oil disaster for the Pacific herring population to crash. Harm at the bottom of the food-web manifests incrementally. We may not know for years how top predators like tuna and dolphin will fare.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2013/04/deepwater-horizon-the-disaster-that-keeps-on-harming/feed/278128Weekly News Roundup – April 5, 2013http://blog.nwf.org/2013/04/weekly-news-roundup-april-5-2013/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/04/weekly-news-roundup-april-5-2013/#respondFri, 05 Apr 2013 19:15:24 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=78064Want to know what National Wildlife Federation was up to this week? Here is a recap of the week’s NWF news:

April 2 – As the three-year mark of the Gulf oil disaster approaches, a new National Wildlife Federation report gives a snapshot view of six important species in the Gulf of Mexico and makes recommendations as to how we can restore their habitats and the Gulf as a whole.

“Three years after the initial explosion, the impacts of the disaster continue to unfold,” said Doug Inkley, senior scientist for the National Wildlife Federation and lead report author. “Dolphins are still dying in high numbers in the areas affected by oil. These ongoing deaths—particularly in an apex predator like the dolphin—are a strong indication that there is something amiss with the Gulf ecosystem.”

“The oil disaster highlighted the gaps in our understanding of the Gulf of Mexico,” said Ian MacDonald, professor of Oceanography at Florida State University. “What frustrates me is how little has changed over the past three years. In many cases, funding for critical research has even been even been cut, limiting our understanding of the disaster’s impacts. For example, we know that some important coral communities were damaged, but funding for the necessary follow up has not been there.”

The report’s release comes as BP and the other companies responsible for the disaster are on trial in federal court for violations of multiple environmental laws. The report describes different sources of restoration funding resulting from the disaster and provides initial suggestions for how this money can be used to improve the outlook for the species discussed in the report.

April 1 – A coalition of conservation and sportsmen’s groups has offered a range of management proposals intended to protect the fish, wildlife, backcountry and other natural riches that make the Roan Plateau a “crown jewel of Colorado’s landscape.’’

The 12 groups submitted the proposals to the Bureau of Land Management, which is writing a new Environmental Impact Statement after a federal court ruled that an EIS and 2008 plan failed to consider a more protective development option. The court also said the BLM’s analysis of the cumulative impacts of oil and gas drilling on the region’s air quality was faulty.

The groups’ comments submitted to the BLM Friday include a “Conservation Alternative,’” which would require companies to access gas atop the Roan from private land on the plateau’s southern edge. No new well pads, roads or infrastructure would be allowed on federal land. The proposal also would prohibit disturbance of the surface in important wildlife habitat and migration corridors at the base of the plateau. Provisions in the earlier plan intended to protect sensitive wildlife areas had built-in waivers that could have opened the land to construction.

April 1 – The National Wildlife® Photo Contest is now accepting entries for its prestigious 43rd annual competition. Operated by National Wildlife Federation’s award-winning, full-color nature magazine National Wildlife, the contest celebrates the beauty of nature and provides funds to help the organization protect wildlife and wild places. Photographers of all levels of experience are eligible submit images in the juried competition and the popular People’s Choice Award. There also is a separate Youth category for children ages 13-17.

Winners will see their photos featured in the magazine alongside images by the world’s top nature photographers, as well as on the National Wildlife Federation website, nwf.org, and in the organization’s annual calendar. The Grand Prize is an expense-paid trip for two to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, to see and photograph polar bears. First and second place winners in seven different categories will receive iPads and iTouches, or cash equivalents.

For additional details and rules about the National Wildlife Photo contest, visit the “Learn More” page.